The Idea
The idea for a Klionsky family web site came about as the result of the extensive family research conducted by Matthew Klionsky and through the communication he initiated with family members among the various branches of the broader Klionsky family, many of which were connections made for the first time.

Matthew, the eldest son of Bernard Klionsky of Pittsburgh, PA and grandson of Max Klionsky of Binghamton, NY, resides in Chicago. His interest in family genealogy began as far back as the 1960s, when on a family trip to England and Israel he met Klionsky relatives that had been born in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Fast-forward to the mid 1990s when Matt learned that a distant relative (Cathy Klion) had, with her brother-in-law, Dick Plotz, done extensive Klionsky family research and created a set of paper charts. Dick gave a copy to Bernard (his pathology professor at the time), which stimulated Bernard's interest in documenting the family tree. Matt began expanding on what Bernard had done once the Ellis Island database became accessible. At that time, he obtained Dick's charts and his father's files and began adding information from web resources.

The Team
Matt encouraged family members to share photos and family information and the idea for the web site ensued. In December 2004, Matthew put out a call for those interested in developing the site and a group of five family members responded. This group, which comes from diverse branches of the family, became the core web site development team. They represent a variety of skills relevant to developing and managing the site. The team members are the following:

Matthew Klionsky.
of Chicago, the eldest son of Bernard Klionsky of Pittsburgh, PA and grandson of Max Klionsky of Binghamton, NY.

He grew up in Pittsburgh, graduated from Brandeis, received his medical degree from the Hahnemann Medical College (now absorbed by Drexel University) in Philadelphia, and then earned an MBA at the University of Chicago.

His professional expertise is in the analysis of patterns of medical utilization in large insured populations, and in the development
of databases and software tools to support those efforts.
The end results of this sort of analysis include assessments of the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of medical care, detection of fraud and abuse, and suggestions for medical insurance plan design changes that would likely result in improved utilization patterns.

In recent years, he has been the main data researcher for Klionsky genealogy

Daniel Klionsky.
of San Francisco, son of Mark Klionsky of St Petersburg, Russia and grandson of Don Klionsky of Baku, Azerbaijan.

Daniel was born in Leningrad, Russia. In 1994 the family moved from Russia to Louisville, Kentucky and later to San Francisco.

Daniel is a webmaster for this site and does Klionsky geneology reasearch as well. He works as a software engineer in San Francisco Bay Area.

Leesa Shem-Tov.
, Rockville, Md, daughter of Harry Klionsky of Bladensburg, Md and granddaughter of Barnett Klionsky of North Haven, Conn. (via Minsk and New York City).

Leesa and her husband, Yehuda, sponsor the domain name for the Klionsky.org website

For almost 30 years, Leesa has sung with the Zemer Chai Chorale of Washington, D.C.,

which has performed in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and in major concert halls in Israel.
Leesa is also an original member of the National Jewish Chorale based in NYC.

Leesa is a project manager for the National Association for Public Health Statistics and Information Systems (NAPHSIS), and travels all over the U.S. helping states re-engineering their vital records systems.

Dick Plotz,
Providence , state of Rhode Island. Dick is not Klionsky descendant, but Dick's brother Tom Plotz is married to Cathy Klion of Washington DC area, great granddaughter of Berl/Barnet Klionsky.

Dick created all Klionsky family charts in pdf format. He's done similar charts for his family and the family of his wife, Judy.

He is a pathologist (practicing mostly cytopathology at the large group practice that used to be Harvard Community Health Plan in Boston.).

Dick is also a manager of mailing lists for JewishGen.org , and has been a moderator of the main JewishGen e-mail list for about 10 years.

When he is not doing pathology or genealogy, Dick likes to solve puzzles, mainly word puzzles like crosswords. He is a member of the National Puzzlers' League.

The site development team members are responsible for creating, developing and managing all aspects of the site, including HTML, ASP.NET and database programming, web hosting, graphic design and content development.